This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Bookmarks sync fails with "Error: Single record too large to submit to server"

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by DigNative

more options

Since some days I had the problem that my entire Firefox browser (not only an individual tab) was freezing for some seconds every few minutes. I now figured out that this was related to Firefox sync, which started to fail a few days ago and was triggered every few minutes.

The sync logs show errors similar to these:

   1526892770098	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks	DEBUG	First sync, uploading all items
   1526892770330	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks	INFO	15808 outgoing items pre-reconciliation
   1526892770330	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks	DEBUG	Bookmarks backup starting.
   1526892774686	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks	DEBUG	Bookmarks backup done.
   1526892774687	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks	INFO	Records: 0 applied, 0 successfully, 0 failed to apply, 0 newly failed to apply, 0 reconciled.
   1526892779953	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks	WARN	Failed to enqueue record "pLxS5go7mqjb" (aborting): Error: Single record too large to submit to server (resource://services-sync/record.js:991:40) JS Stack trace: enqueue@record.js:991:40
   _uploadOutgoing@engines.js:1666:43
   1526892780067	Sync.Engine.Bookmarks.BookmarkSyncUtils	DEBUG	pushChanges: Processed change records: {"weak":0,"skipped":15808,"updated":0}
   1526892780068	Sync.Status	DEBUG	Status for engine bookmarks: error.engine.reason.unknown_fail
   1526892780068	Sync.Status	DEBUG	Status.service: success.status_ok => error.sync.failed_partial
   1526892780068	Sync.ErrorHandler	DEBUG	bookmarks failed: Error: Single record too large to submit to server (resource://services-sync/record.js:991:40) JS Stack trace: enqueue@record.js:991:40
   _uploadOutgoing@engines.js:1666:43
   1526892780069	Sync.Engine.Addons	DEBUG	Refreshing reconciler state

I then tried to create a new Firefox profile and to start sync all over again, which was also not working. I am operating a Mozilla Sync Server on one of my own private servers and in the server logs, I noticed that sync tried to fetch one million new bookmarks from the server until I cancelled the process after some hours.

After noticing that I had a look into my bookmarks. There I figured out that my bookmarks were completely screwed up. They were doubled and tripled in the "Other Bookmarks" folder and --- strangely --- they were somehow linked. So deleting a particular bookmark in the "Other Bookmarks" folder deleted it also in the "Bookmarks Toolbar" folder, for example. I decided to completely delete all bookmarks and restore them from a backup. Now, at least in the bookmark manager, everything seems fine.

I also deleted my Firefox sync account and registered again to delete all data on the server side and to start with a fresh sync. However, the sync is now still failing with errors similar to the one above.

Any help is appreciated.

Since some days I had the problem that my entire Firefox browser (not only an individual tab) was freezing for some seconds every few minutes. I now figured out that this was related to Firefox sync, which started to fail a few days ago and was triggered every few minutes. The sync logs show errors similar to these: 1526892770098 Sync.Engine.Bookmarks DEBUG First sync, uploading all items 1526892770330 Sync.Engine.Bookmarks INFO 15808 outgoing items pre-reconciliation 1526892770330 Sync.Engine.Bookmarks DEBUG Bookmarks backup starting. 1526892774686 Sync.Engine.Bookmarks DEBUG Bookmarks backup done. 1526892774687 Sync.Engine.Bookmarks INFO Records: 0 applied, 0 successfully, 0 failed to apply, 0 newly failed to apply, 0 reconciled. 1526892779953 Sync.Engine.Bookmarks WARN Failed to enqueue record "pLxS5go7mqjb" (aborting): Error: Single record too large to submit to server (resource://services-sync/record.js:991:40) JS Stack trace: enqueue@record.js:991:40 _uploadOutgoing@engines.js:1666:43 1526892780067 Sync.Engine.Bookmarks.BookmarkSyncUtils DEBUG pushChanges: Processed change records: {"weak":0,"skipped":15808,"updated":0} 1526892780068 Sync.Status DEBUG Status for engine bookmarks: error.engine.reason.unknown_fail 1526892780068 Sync.Status DEBUG Status.service: success.status_ok => error.sync.failed_partial 1526892780068 Sync.ErrorHandler DEBUG bookmarks failed: Error: Single record too large to submit to server (resource://services-sync/record.js:991:40) JS Stack trace: enqueue@record.js:991:40 _uploadOutgoing@engines.js:1666:43 1526892780069 Sync.Engine.Addons DEBUG Refreshing reconciler state I then tried to create a new Firefox profile and to start sync all over again, which was also not working. I am operating a Mozilla Sync Server on one of my own private servers and in the server logs, I noticed that sync tried to fetch one million new bookmarks from the server until I cancelled the process after some hours. After noticing that I had a look into my bookmarks. There I figured out that my bookmarks were completely screwed up. They were doubled and tripled in the "Other Bookmarks" folder and --- strangely --- they were somehow linked. So deleting a particular bookmark in the "Other Bookmarks" folder deleted it also in the "Bookmarks Toolbar" folder, for example. I decided to completely delete all bookmarks and restore them from a backup. Now, at least in the bookmark manager, everything seems fine. I also deleted my Firefox sync account and registered again to delete all data on the server side and to start with a fresh sync. However, the sync is now still failing with errors similar to the one above. Any help is appreciated.

All Replies (2)

more options

Hi, I notice you do not mention another device at all. Sync is for Syncing 2 or more devices and is not designed as a backup service. Failure will happen sooner or later no matter what you do when using this service as a backup.

Modified by Shadow110

more options

Hi, I am using more than 10 devices synced with this profile. However, I cannot see why this information should matter for solving this particular issue.